Stargazers
by claudiastar
Summary: Rose asks the Doctor to take a look at the stars with her, but is really in need of some reassurance. Set sometime after Age of Steel.


Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own Doctor Who. If I did don't you think I'd be right there in the TArdis with David Tennant? _Lovestruck Sigh_

Author's Note: Yay. I have new obsession, and hence a new Fandom to write for! The Doctor and Rose rule! Feel the fluffiness and sentimentality. Please review

"_Winter winds will blow and turn our lives to snow  
I'd be glad to know you anyway  
You say my heart's grown cold, but it's just getting old  
It's been dropped and sold so many times"_

Eric Bibb, "Ribbons and Bows"

Stargazers

The Doctor couldn't sleep. It was 1 o'clock in the morning, but this appeared to make no difference to his brain, which was simply refusing to shut down. He blamed this resentfully on Jackie Tyler's slovenliness, surely it was her fault the sofa cushions were lumpy and the T.V remote kept sticking into back, and no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't sleep. What ever had possessed him to tell Rose he didn't mind if they spent the night at her mother's? It was a dump and he thanked whatever gods there might be every day that he hadn't been the one to grow up here. Of course this was the reason he couldn't sleep, it wasn't the fact that Rose was asleep in just the next room; that had nothing to do with it at all.

Except that she wasn't. The white bedroom door opened with a soft creak and Rose came shuffling out it out of it, slipping a faded blue dressing gown over pink pyjamas that stopped a good two inches short of her ankles. She was yawning and rubbing her nose in a sleepy way, clearly off in a sleep clouded day dream, unaware of her surroundings. The Doctor firmly suppressed all thoughts of amazement at fact that she could look incredible in a pair of old pyjamas and instead pushed himself up on his elbow and said cheerfully "Rose Tyler, what are you doing out of bed at this time of night?"

She shrieked and jumped and about a foot in the air, nearly knocking over a lamp in her shock. "Don't do that!" She hissed "jumping out at a person like that, it's not nice…"

"Couldn't resist, you looked so out of it," he said with a mischievous grin, "and strictly speaking- you were the one who jumped. Now- you still haven't explained your behaviour."

"Oh whatever!" she grumbled. "You're not asleep either."

"Err no" he replied shiftily "Sofas, you know how it is…"

She laughed ruefully nodding her agreement. "Yeah, it's not exactly comfortable, but you said you didn't mind…"

"I don't." he put in quickly, "Why couldn't you sleep?"

She frowned suddenly "It's weird, but I can't sleep here anymore. It's like…I miss the hum of the TARDIS or something."

Why did that make him feel ridiculously happy? Wasn't the usual response to other people's insomnia sympathy? He tried to suppress a wide smile, but failed miserably, it was infectious, and Rose beamed back at him.

"Look this is going to sound really stupid" she said, her eyes now not quite meeting his and her hands thrust deep into her dressing-gown pockets. "But, I'm going up to the roof, I dunno, do you want to come?" she was still smiling, but she sounded as nervous as a school girl asking a boy she liked out on a date.

"Up to the roof- why? So you can push me off it into oblivion?" he asked suspiciously.

"No 'course not, don't be stupid. It's just, it's what I used to do when I was a kid, go up on the roof and you know, look at the night, or whatever…"

He smiled. "It's silly" she mumbled.

"No it's not, it's sweet, let's go look at night, or whatever" he said pushing off the duvet Jackie had provided him with last night. It was amazing- she could travel the universe and still love the night at home; that was what was so special about her. Rose gave him a critical look, taking in blue cotton pyjamas.

"You can't go like that, you'll freeze." she said in a tone of mild bossiness.

"Don't worry, I'll bring my coat." He replied meekly.

She smiled at him affectionately. "You know I don't think I could cope with you out of doors without that coat, it'ld be _unnatural_ or something. Against the laws of physics" He laughed at that and picked up the offending article from the back of arm chair next to the Sofa pulling it on quickly over his pyjamas. Rose gave him a motherly nod of approval- it was a strange thing but the younger his companions were the more they seemed to want to look after him.

She slipped and arm through his and they padded up the carpeted stairs together, careful to be as quiet as possible. It wouldn't do to wake Jackie up after all would it? After climbing up about three flights of stairs they came to a door, with a peeling wooden frame and glass panels. "Needs repainting" Rose muttered critically. Then she flashed the doctor a quick grin. "Mum never locks this one; I don't think she can quite envision burglars coming in from the roof."

"Very short sighted of her, roofs are favoured destinations among the criminally minded." He said wisely

"And would you know about that, how?" Rose asked raising her eyebrows and fixing him with her steely blue gaze.

"I, _experimented_, in my younger days…" he told her, trying to sound mysterious. She gave that a derisive snort of laughter and turned to open the door. It protested, creaking loudly and taking a large amount of effort to shift on its hinges, but eventually she got it open.

They were faced with a flight of concrete steps that were cold and smooth underneath his bare feet as they climbed up together. The steps came out onto a wide concrete parapet surrounded by a relatively low wall. There were several pot plants scattered across the parapet, and a creeper covered one side of the wall. "Wow Rose," the Doctor said "When you said roof, I envisioned tiles and chimneys, I had no idea you had a roof garden."

"Well I wouldn't quite call it that," said Rose with a laugh "Mum got really keen on it when I was 10 maybe- it was going to be a spot for posh summer parties or something, but she got bored, and then I was the only person who ever came up here. It was _the roof garden _now its just Rose's sulking spot."

"You sulk up here?"

"I used to, now I don't seem to have so much to sulk about" she said with a smile, with a shock he felt her reach for his hand and give it a quick squeeze. Then she walked away from him to lean on the wall and look out over the roofs of the street or up at stars, he heard her sigh.

"Is that what you're doing now? Sulking?" he said, his voice suddenly tense, his hands disappearing in to the pockets of his coat, pulling it tighter around him. It was cold out here, colder than he'd expected.

"I don't know." She said in a strangely flat voice, "Maybe." A breeze lifted some of her blonde hair of shoulders. She had her arms folded tightly across her chest. Feeling oddly unsure of himself, the Doctor went to stand next to. For a while they were silent. He took in the view. It was beautiful, the rooftops of London lay stretched out beneath them, and above them was the vast, smoky blue-black sky, dotted with stars, surprisingly clear for a London night as well, he supposed it was the cold. It was she who eventually broke the silence. "I suppose you think I'm stupid, still wanting to look at the stars, when I can go to them all- with you. But somehow that's just made them seem more beautiful. "

"It's not stupid. It's the same for me," he said quietly. "They're still fascinating where ever you go in the whole of the universe, and realising that just makes them more amazing."  
She gave him an astonished delighted smile. "You understand" she said happily.

"You know me, I understand everything." he said with a cocky expression on his face. He made a sweeping gesture at the sky that he hoped looked impressive "I know all their names you know."

"I know. You never tire of telling me." She began to scan the sky thoughtfully finally settling on a particularly bright star towards the left "What's that one called then?" she said, hoping in a little malicious part of her that he wouldn't know.

"Aah that's Betelgeuse that is. Got a lovely planetary system. I once had a friend who came from Betelgeuse Five. Nice bloke, weird obsession with towels though."

Rose snorted with laughter. "Towels, seriously?"

"Oh yes, very useful things towels, he never went anywhere without one."

"Ah well each to his own I suppose" said Rose, shaking her head, still laughing.

"What's yours then?" he asked curiously. "The thing you can't travel anywhere without?"

She swallowed, looking as though she was deciding whether or not to say something "You are." She said simply, after a long course.

Both his hearts seemed to skip a beat. "Oh Rose…" he breathed, trying to gather his senses, which she seemed to have sent spinning.

Suddenly she was speaking very fast breathlessly, as if she had opened some kind of floodgate inside herself. "I just feel like everything's been changing, first you regenerating, then Sarah-Jane, and Reinette, and Mickey leaving, but that's o.k., yeah?" she stopped taking a deep breath.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly, and he was, she doubted him, doubted that he cared for her, and he'd done that, and then he spoiled it. "You must miss Mickey"

Her face fell. "Yeah." She said flatly her shoulders hunched, not looking at him. _Stupid. Now he'd just made it worse. Why had he had to withdraw like that? He'd been scared, was that it? Well now was the time to take some risks._

"Hey, you've still got me." He said, trying to sound cheerful, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She turned to look at him, beaming. "Promise?" she said

"Promise." He told her firmly, a feeling of relief flooding him. He put an arm round her. And she leant her head on his shoulder. "We've still got a whole load of stars to see, right Rose?"

"It is an infinite universe." She told him with a quiet smile

"You have no idea." He told with a soft laugh.

"Yeah well, so long as you're with me, I'm all right." She said gently.

THE END


End file.
